The Blip Blop Blog (Team Entity)

In Green v Gaymer (1999) the plaintiff got on the back of a motorbike with the defendant who was drunk at the time on the throttle. The motorbike subsequently crashed into a lamppost and in the accident that followed, the defendant was killed while the plaintiff was injured. The plaintiff sued. It is worth comparing the facts of Green v Gaymer (1999) with that of Pitt v Hunt (1990). There, the defendant aged 16 gave the plaintiff aged 18 a ride on his motorbike. The defendant neither had insurance nor had he paid road tax and he was on a bike with a much bigger engine than someone his age was allowed to be on. In addition to that both the plaintiff and the defendant were drunk and witnesses gave evidence that they were riding recklessly on the road at the time. There was an accident and the defendant was killed while the plaintiff suffered serious injuries. Whereas in Pitt v Hunt (1990) the maxim of ex turpi causa prevented a duty of care from arising the court in Green

In Fitzgerald v Lane (1987) the plaintiff was walking down a pelican crossing when the light for pedestrians turned red. He was hit by the first defendant’s car and thrown on to the path of the second defendant’s car. The plaintiff suffered severe injuries especially to the neck resulting in partial tetraplegia. Because it was impossible to determine which of the defendants caused the injury an action was brought against both defendants. It was held that because it was impossible to determine which of the defendants had caused the injury, the defendants were jointly liable. The damages were however reduced by 1/3 in line with s1 (1) of the Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945. In Capps v Miller (1989) the plaintiff, a motorcyclist, was in the middle of the road, on his bike, waiting to make a right turn. He was waiting for the right time to make the turn when the defendant, who was drunk at the time, crashed into him with his car from the rear. The plaintiff was inj

In Froom v Butcher (1975) the plaintiff was involved in a car accident which was caused by the defendant’s negligence. While the defendant was held liable, the claimant was not wearing her seat belt at that time of the accident. The law that made the wearing of seatbelts mandatory only came into force on the 31st of January 1983 - prior to that it was recommended that passengers in a car wear seatbelts. Fitting of seatbelt anchorage points in all new cars was made compulsory in 1967. Therefore it is possible to surmise that the government was quite serious about making the public aware of the benefits of wearing seatbelts and it was only a matter of time before the law came into effect. It was held that the plaintiff would not have been injured but for the defendants negligence but the plaintiff also had a duty to take the necessary precautions to mitigate or reduce any injury he or she may incur by taking recommended precautionary steps and therefore the damages that the p